<p>Hello Everyone,</p>
<p>I am a male high school junior from Canada and my goal is to be recruited by a NCAA Div. 1 Swim Team, especially an Ivy League school. Is there any sort of general guideline/timeline of how to go through the recruiting process as a swimmer (e.g. when to take SAT/Subject Tests)? Should I start contacting the coaches now (filling out online questionnaires and emailing) or wait until the new year? Also, does anyone have further tips or advice?</p>
<p>Thanks so much in advance!
flyguy1688</p>
<p>Definitely, start filling out the online registrations and send brief emails/bios to coaches
with best times gpa etc
This time next year, you will be setting up ov’s and if things go well with any Ivy or other top school they will expect you to apply ED so you will need to have your application completed.
With that in mind, the SAT’s and subject tests need to be taken so that you have an opportunity to retake if not happy with score and to have time to study the areas that need to be bolstered.
Use your head,look at each team ,see where your times will give you the best opportunity
to help with your applications but most of all try to attend a school where if you blow out your shoulder day one you still will be extremely happy with your college choice.
Best of luck and try to enjoy the entire process.</p>
<p>Hi fleishmo6 thanks for the quick reply!
I actually didn’t have the best season last year and my times at the end of the season weren’t as good as I would’ve liked them to be. Do you think I should still contact them now or wait maybe a month or two until I swim my first one or two meets of the season? That way it’ll also be after the ED/EA deadlines for the recruits this year.
I am planning to take the PSAT in Oct. for practice and the SAT in December or January.
On a side note, when would be the best time to take the Subject Tests? </p>
<p>Cheers,
flyguy1688</p>
<p>Re: the Subject Tests, be aware that these are offered less often than the SAT. I would check out the schedule soon and then make some plans depending on your coursework, and when you will know enough material and it will be freshest in your mind. And like the SATs, you may also decide you want a second crack at it. </p>
<p>You are going to find swimming pretty competitive to get in… swimming and brains seem to go together pretty frequently. As you are setting your sights on elite schools, be aware there are other prestigious schools besides the Ivys you might want to consider. S kept saying he didn’t want to swim D3… until the NYU coach reached out to him. (His SATs weren’t good enough but the calls and emails from the coach were fun while they lasted 
). Johns Hopkins, MIT, Emory, Carnegie Mellon, Washington U… We also have the Patriot League including Lehigh which is in the U S News Top 100 and Colgate, a very highly ranked LAC.</p>
<p>No harm in reaching out to coaches now IMO. One of the coaches that gently told my son his times weren’t there yet still wanted to hear from him if they dropped later. S is quite literally one millisecond away from his third AAA event time and I promise you that coach will be one of the first to hear it when he knocks that one down this winter. He probably won’t get an OV there but many coaches recruit in “waves”.</p>
<p>I agree with byebye
Check the schedule for tests and yes these schools are crazy competitive both academically and athletically
Widening your net would be a good idea
Look at the NESCAC schools as well,great academics and highly competitive athletically
but too very tough to get in.
I too say write a nice email with your times,explain how you are expecting drops and ask if it would be okay to send them updates with time drops.
For the most part, your tests need to be done by the time scool finishes
Check schedules,come up with a game plan and study for them</p>
<p>ByeByeSavings and fleishmob6,</p>
<p>Thanks again for all of your advice.
I’m already looking at schools other than the Ivys and I will definitely take them into consideration. How many schools/coaches should I start initiating contact with? 5? 7?
For the Subject Tests, would it be ok if I took them once later this school year and if needed, retake them at the beginning of senior year, or is that too late? Fleishmob6 when you say “by the time school finishes”, do you mean by the end of Junior year?</p>
<p>flyguy1688</p>
<p>You want the tests completed if possible by the end of junior year.This time next year you want and the schools want all your academic info to see if they can get it through admissions so as to offer a visit or not.
The better academic schools will want all your ducks in order prior to any type of official visit. Send out emails to 7-10 schools that you are interested in and that fit your abilities both academically and athletically.
Some might not respond but most coaches are very good at answering emails.Like you said earlier most are very busy now with their recruits for next year.
any other questions feel free to pm me
good luck</p>
<p>I wouldn’t put any artificial limits on how many coaches to contact. It will help you get a feel for if you are targetting the right schools. I have divined that your stroke is the butterfly and I think the Ivys are looking for guys that swim the 100 y fly in under 50s. It is also best if you are good at more than one stroke, esp freestyle as they want those points from winning relays. You are probably at something of a disadvantage being in Canada and no one is going to get angry if you email them. My son had some schools reach out to him simply by virtue of his having medaled at States and there are coaches that watch over those results, not to mention events like YMCA Nationals and Speedo Nationals. I don’t know what your equivalents in Canada are but I’m dubious as to whether many US coaches look at them.</p>
<p>Don’t restrict yourself to emails either. Familiarize yourself with the NCAA rules about coach contacts in case you haven’t already. Of the coaches that are seriously interested in my son, only one connection is a result of email contact that actually initiated when he was a rising junior. Many especially D2 & D3 coaches saw his profile on a popular site called Be Recruited. Three contacted him after being mailed an eye catching swim resume we put together and had color printed for not much money at a Kinkos. One hadn’t responded to emails, but finally wrote after we sent the resume by 2nd day courier.</p>
<p>Of the official visits he is taking so far this fall, one of the most promissing is a school where the coach had ignored our mailing. It mystified me as my DS’s times would have made him #2 in several events compared to current college upperclassment at the school and his academics were higher than the norm. So my son simply cold called him. After a terse phone call and three even terser emails, he has an OV with his pick of three remaining dates. (We think the coach is simply bad at recruiting.)</p>
<p>Oh, and do your research about the school. In another case where I was suprised we hadn’t heard back, a careful read of the press releases at the school revealed the Head Coach had actually passed away a few months earlier. It also turned out that their pool is so badly in need of renovation they are simply not swimming in 2012-13. But it’s also good to be conversant about the league they swim in, how many guys they sent to Olympic trials etc etc.</p>
<p>PS once you do get coaches interested, Admissions at the school will be delighted to consider an international applicant as they want that diversity.</p>
<p>fleishmo6 - Alright, thanks for letting me know. I’ll definitely start planning out my test schedules.</p>
<p>ByeByeSavings - haha I’m actually a sprint/mid freestyler. I was thinking that could be an advantage with the focus on relays, just as you said. About coaches watching over results, do you have any idea if they would look at the results from the Paul Bergen Meet in Oregon in December? It’s a pretty high calibre meet with a lot of international junior teams. I went two years ago and I’m thinking of going again this year.</p>
<p>I’ve heard about berecruited.com as well as another website called ncsasports.org. Is one better than the other or are they pretty similar? I also have a profile on collegeswimming.com but I don’t think that does much (do correct me if I’m wrong though). Would you be able to expand a bit more on the resumes as well? (e.g. when you sent them, kinds of information included, length, etc.)</p>
<p>Thanks for all your tips and good luck to your son as well! :)</p>
<p>What about the USA Swimming Grand Prix series? There are many to choose from. That’s probably the most visible national meet that allows international participants besides US Open which has tougher qualifying times.</p>
<p>Bigger meets are great and generally,the faster the competition faster you go so long as you are tapered.
I believe you target a group of schools that you want to attend and where your times are
top 2 to 3 on depth chart
you need to look at what year in school those swimmers are in ,if they were all freshman and faster than you plus new first year recruits than look elsewhere since now you are middle of depth chart coach does not need you
do not hope for coaches to see your times be proactive and show them your times
like byebye said coaches do look at different recruiting sites and attend big meets but
do the best from your end.</p>
<p>Regarding the Paul Bergen meet, Oregon sounds like a long haul from BC/Alta (I’m assuming you are in the west). The awesome thing about swim recruiting is that your times are your times are your times… and by that I mean that if you are swimming a sub-20s 50 free they don’t need to WATCH you do it to know they want you. If you go I would go because you love attending big events with your swim brethren, not on the off chance a coach will spot you. We’ve been to three Y National meets so far and there were a couple D3 coaches who specifically mentioned seeing his name in the results. Some other coaches were vaguely impressed that he had been to Nats. But again we went mostly for the fun of it (all the male bonding of taking ice baths together…)</p>
<p>What I love most about college swimming. com is that you can click on “Find a College”, surf to a school, and then click “How do I Fit?” And bang, there you are in the lineup of their current swimmers and they tell you if you would be their 3rd fastest dude or whatever. I THINK the NYU coach found my son there because his first email actually went to me not to my son. The site also determines your power ranking by some obscure point system… I’ve read complaints about it but if you look to see where you are ranked nationally it’s a fair dose of reality.</p>
<p>Here’s what we put on the resume:
- several good photos (in water shot with warface, podium shot)
- in a prominant place, his three best times + his SATs and best Achievement test scores
- below that, bullet points with club team & school team achievements
- across the bottom, a few other tidbits such as other clubs/hobbys/scholastic honors and his GPA (which is not as stellar as his SATs).</p>
<p>Final comment, a lot of schools found him on BeRecruited but they were largely D2/D3. There was ONE Ivy League coach that checked out his profile there though, also one Patriot League coach so far . Majority have been schools we have never heard of.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your advice. I appreciate it a lot. I’ll ask in this thread again if I need more help :)</p>
<p>flyguy1688</p>